We reap what we sow.  In other words, what we do is never free of an outcome that will be shaped by what we do.  The ‘cause-and-effect’ of life is such that what we do will always cause an outcome that is fashioned directly by what we do.  Despite the fact that we often think (or would prefer to think) that what we do is somehow isolated to the … [Read more...]

Do we search for the truth, or do we search for ways around the truth?  Do we even take the time to consider a question like that out of the long-held assumption that we are, in fact, looking for the truth because (we assume) that that’s the obvious thing to do?  What insanity would behoove us to do anything less?  But do we search for the truth, … [Read more...]

What is a warrior?  Who are these combatants who take up arms in whatever way that they take them up?  The shared sense is that a warrior is someone who engages in battle.  That’s quite different from a terrorist who holds that the perceived virtue of the cause justifies the slaughter of the innocent, or someone who runs hard with psychopathic … [Read more...]

History has pivoted on ordinary people who when faced with extraordinary circumstances drew on some deeply submerged essence of their humanity and were, in those most harrowing of moments, transformed into extraordinary people.  There are those who held themselves of no accord who stood in harm’s way or entered the dangers of the fray and turned … [Read more...]

What is our narrative?  What is the story-line that we’ve authored to explain our world, or allay our fears, or justify our agendas, or excuse our behaviors?  What is the narrative that we’ve created to give ourselves permission to do whatever we want permission to do?  What are the story-lines, the spins, the bits of fiction that we create so that … [Read more...]

I want to be happy, but I don’t think I want to be satisfied.  I want to experience a resilient and wonderfully endearing sense of contentment that neatly threads itself through every part of my soul, but I don’t want that contentment to morph into the baser mentality of complacency.  I want to keep a weathered eye on every horizon, but I want to … [Read more...]

Our humanity is ingeniously fashioned in a manner that it can handily break the realities that would seek to break it.  Our existence need never be held hostage nor pressed into servitude to the sordid realities of all that is happening around us.  Rather, we are able to stand in spirited opposition to those realities, and in the face of them we … [Read more...]

My life is spent in holes more times than its not.  Some are deep and some are not so deep.  I have this maniacal tendency to go from one hole to another, rarely staying above ground long enough to understand what above ground looks like.  Instead, I’m repeatedly looking up from the bottom of some hole that I don’t necessarily remember falling … [Read more...]

Both the space and the tolerance to speak the truths of God into the mounting chaos of the 21st century seems to be rapidly diminishing.  Clearly, there is a formidable wave of mounting dissent that opposes God with an ever-accelerating intensity.  And in facing such a foreboding reality, how do we speak the saving truth of the Gospel into our … [Read more...]

We all have our proverbial soapboxes.  Sometimes we find ourselves hauling them out on a regular basis, standing high atop them and vigorously pontificating on whatever we’re pontificating about.  Other times they’re rarely used except in those most exceptional moments when circumstances are of such magnitude that not pulling them out feels as … [Read more...]